Thoughts From a Christian Artist

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By Whose Stripes We Are Healed

I just finished this painting. It was painted in acrylic on canvas and measures 32” x 48”.

The painting is about Christ’s suffering during His crucifixion, focusing on His scourging which is recorded in Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15 and John 19:1. Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged as a prelude to His crucifixion. Christ could have received up to 39 lashes.

I did not include a pillar or column that Jesus would have been tied to. I mainly wanted to show the stripes. My research on the whips the Romans used at that time seemed uncertain, so I painted something similar to what I thought a cat-of-nine-tails would have looked like. I simply made it up, painting sharp pieces of shells tied to the end of the leather cords, having nine of them.

Isaiah states in 53: 5, “And by His stripes we are healed.” Peter in 1 Peter 2:24 seems to be quoting Isaiah, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: bywhose stripes ye were healed.” Our ability to live unto righteousness was won for us by these stripes.

The word healed is Iaomai in the Greek and means to heal, make whole. Just how did the stripes of Jesus heal us? They make us whole! We are all born into this world without God. We each had or have a disease called “Without God.” Ephesians 2:12 tells us, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” The only cure is to be injected with the serum Christ In Me. 1John 5:11-12 tells us, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” A Christian is someone who possesses Christ and has Christ living in them. (Galatians 2:20)

Christ’s death on the cross sets the stage for our ability to receive Him. Romans 5:10 states, “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Being reconciled to God occurred because of Christ’s death, which would include the spilling of His blood during His scourging. In fact, Christ lost most of His blood during His flagellation. During scourging, the amount of blood loss would lead to hypovolemic shock, which is why it was a prelude to crucifixion. It was part of the overall act of dying by crucifixion.

What is meant by the phrase, “that we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son?” 1. Death is the penalty for all our sins, because the wages of sin is death. Jesus paid for our sins with His life. His payment removed our need to pay for our own sins. God accepted his payment. Anyone who does not accept Christ’s sacrifice must pay for his or her own sins themselves. 2. His blood secures the forgiveness of all our sins. All our sins! According to the writer of the book of Hebrews, one sacrifice for all sin for all time. Anyone who accepts Christ’s sacrifice are forgiven forever, anyone who does not accept Christ’s sacrifice will never receive forgiveness for his or her sins because there are no more sacrifices for atonement. As stated in Hebrews10:26, “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.”

3. He was the Lamb that Abraham told Isaac that God would provide in Genesis 22:8.

John 1:29 ¶ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

John 1:36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

Acts 8:32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:

1Pet. 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

Hebrews 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

Hebrews 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:14, For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Believers are perfected forever!

This is exactly what had to happen before a Holy God could come and take up residence in the bodies of believers. We become a tabernacle, a dwelling place for God on this earth. In studying the Old Testament we see that the priest had to cleanse and purify the tabernacle before the Shekinah Glory of God came into it. The same goes for us. God cannot and will not take up resident in an impure person. Whenever a person accepts the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross, God cleanses and forgives them of all their sins, accepts them into His family and immediately imparts the Holy Spirit into them. From that point on, God will recognize them as Holy and will never depart from them. Colossians 1:27 reveals, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The infusion of Christ into the person cures the disease of “Without God”. 2 Corinthians 5:17 put it this way, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”